Warning: This story is meant to portray real life issues, specifically concerning the radicalization of youths and mass shootings.
You have been warned.
(Not Complete)
"Bro, I am telling you, Goku is real!"
"No, his not. What dumb fuck would believe Goku is real?"
"First, I am not dumb and second, I have prove of it!"
"Then show me then."
Jared pulls out his phone and enters into the Chrome app. He then goes to his bookmarks to find the one labelled "In case of denial".
"Why do you have a bookmark called 'GWFC'?"
"None of your fucking business, why the hell are you looking?"
"I don't know, I was just curious."
"It's a sports thing."
"You must be lying to yourself then because when was the last time you liked sports?"
"Shut the fuck up and look at this."
On his screen, it should a 4chan posted back in 2014. The post read:
"Everyone's heard about the release of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods? Well, I think I found something interesting about the movie. What I have heard in dark web forums that the movie was supposed to be in live action at one point but was scrapped early in development due to unforeseen disaster. It was stated that 5 employees that were working on the costumes for the movie were found dead in an apartment Japan. It was reported that a 6th person was also with them, but they were missing. The oddest thing of all was that the Goku costume was also missing from the set. Shortly after, the movie was canned."
"That's not prove, that's a shitty creepypasta."
"No, look at what was posted after this."
Garet took Jared's phone and scrolled towards the replies. The only things he saw was your typical 4chan behavior.
"This are just insults and slurs about people who like anime."
"No, obviously not that, but look at this reply!"
Further down in the replies, an anon replied:
"I think I have heard of this as well, I think it was reported the 6 employees were in cult to bring to life a supernatural entity."
Garet looked at Jared.
"You got to be fucking with me."
"Dude, I swear on my mother this is real!"
"You are one of the dumbest people I have ever met. How the fuck did you make it to Highschool?"
Garet continued walking ahead of Jared. Garet was ready to get home and finally relax. The AP Exams have been stressful for him, and he had just finished his last one. The last thing he need was his friend believing a stupid spooky story.
Jared ran after Garet with his phone high above his head. He was screaming for Garet to stop as he claimed he had video evidence of it being true. Jared did not listen and continued to walk for a further 2 minutes until a crossing forced him to stop.
"Garet" Jared said while panting,
"I... have evidence... right here..."
"Why are you so determined to prove to me it's real? Give up already, I won't believe you even with a video."
"Just look at it please!"
"Will you stop if I look at it?"
"Yes!"
"Fine." Garet sighed. Jared excitedly showed his phone to Garet. The video began with a black screen and what sounded like a guy talking. The video was in Japanese but there were subtitles underneath. The man was apparently saying "Look, look" as the camera was later pointed towards a window. The camera quickly made its way towards the window where a figure could be made out. As the camera began to focus on the figure outside the window, the figure seems to have noticed the camera and looked directly at it. The camera had finished focusing on the figure which revealed the figure as a man dressed in a Goku costume. The man recording then said, "What is that?" as the man in the Goku costume ran towards the camera. The man recording quickly moved the camera away and is heard screaming as the video abruptly ends.
Garet looks like he is done with everything. Jared looks at Garet, looking to see if he will give any positive facial expressions. Garet does not.
"Stop going on the internet."
Garet crosses the street and walks home.
Jared looks dismayed and walks the opposite direction, realizing he had past his house.
A few hours have passed and Garet is in his room playing on his PS4. He had taken a shower and has changed into pajamas. His mom then calls for him as dinner was ready. Garet then pauses his game and decides to head downstairs to the dining room. His mom was already there and had laid out his plate. Garet thanks his mom and they began eating.
"So, how was your test?"
"It was stressful. I had studied for it, but it felt like half the things I learned disappeared the minute I sat down to take it."
"Well, at least you gave it your all right?"
"Of course I did, there was no way in hell I'd take that class again."
"Don't worry, I was also bad at math in Highschool. Boy did I struggle with just regular math."
"For me, math isn't so hard as long as it's not hundreds of concepts taught in a year crammed into a 2-hour exam."
"That's just the way it is."
"Yeah, a stupid way."
"But luckily, I was pretty good at writing. Without that, I would have definitely would have failed my senior high school year."
"I don't mind writing, but I am not good at it."
"You don't need to be perfect to make it."
"Well said."
"What about the rest of your day?"
"Just hanged out with some friends. Went to the park and got something to eat along the way."
"Very nice."
"But before I got home, Jared started going crazy about this a stupid internet horror story he read. Honestly, I got pretty annoyed by it."
"What was it about?"
"Some Goku horror story."
"Goku? That anime you watched as a kid?"
"Well, the story is not named that, but the main character is."
"Hmph. I guess he just really likes Goku."
"A bit too much honestly."
"You know how he is; he is always talking about his anime's and internet things."
"His deep into all parts of the internet. Man's obsessed with it."
"Well, he better start taking life seriously now that his about to be out of Highschool. After that, the training wheels are off."
"He struggled in most of his classes, it's a miracle he made it."
"At least his computer skills might come in helpful in the future."
"I highly doubt that."
"We well have to wait and see."
The two of them finish dinner and begin to bring their plates to the kitchen sink.
"Garet, since I cooked, it's your turn to clean."
"Ok mom."
His mom lives Garet in the kitchen as she heads to her room. Garet decides to take out his phone and connects his wireless headphones to listen to some music while doing the dishes. A few minutes later, he receives a call from his friend Liam.
"Yo, what's up?"
"Nothing much man. Just doing some dishes."
"Ight. Say, did Jared talked to you about that Goku thing?"
"Yeah, he sure did,"
"Bro's being talking about it with everyone."
"Everyone, Jesus, you'd think he would give up on it already."
"He said that he was going to investigate it and shit."
"It's a fucking internet story, why the fuck those he believes it so much?"
"I think he might be on something, not gonna lie."
"I wouldn't doubt you on that."
"I mean, I know he into mysterious things on the internet but his being acting so differently lately."
"When do you think that happened?"
"I don't, throughout this whole year is being weird. I guess maybe when he met this group of people on a discord server or something."
"Just random people?"
"I don't know, maybe he met them on the game, but I am not going to go pointing fingers now."
"Yeah, well I'll talk to you later, got to finish these dishes."
"Alright man, talk to you later."
"Peace."
Garet hangs up and finishes the dishes. He heads towards his room as he notices something odd in his window. There seems to be light shining directly at the window. Garet decides to take a closer look, but the light vanishes as he peers out the window. Garet thinks it's just some random person messing around and closes the window blinds.
He gets inside his room and looks at the door, ready to spend the night gaming. An hour passes and Garet starts to feel tired from playing the game unstop. He turns off his system and turns off the lights. He suddenly gets a notification on his phone. He walks over and picks up his phone to see what it was about.
"Don't sleep."
Garet became confused. Who sent this message? Why did it tell me this? Garet try to look at the name of the sender, but it was an unknown number. Garet felt tempted to text back, thinking it was some kind of joke. He grabbed his phone, thinking of a cleaver comeback when another text message was sent.
"Don't let the light touch you."
Just then, a white light could be seen from the outside of Garet's room window. Garet started to get worried and quickly laid down on his bed. Just then, the light was shined at his window. A second later, the light was turned off. Another message appears.
"Great job, continue."
Garet was now completely terrified. His mind began to race by the meaning of all this. Why is this happening? Am I getting tracked? Is this a kidnapping? Will I die? Just then he heard a quite footsteps outside. Garet started to tremble. This was real, it wasn't a dream or hallucination, he might actually be in danger. He stood still for a few second, thinking on what to do. Should he run? Hide? Fight? Then he remembered his mom. She was sleeping and is completely defenseless. He had to keep her safe. He quickly shifted to other side of his room to his closet, where he had stored a wooden bat he used to play baseball at the park. He picked it up and slowly crept towards his room's door. As he slowly opened the door, he heard scratching at the living room window.
*/.../ = Inner thoughts
/Fuck, this isn't good. I don't want to do this. This can't be happening./
The scratching stopped. A few moments later, the window could be heard being smashed open.
/They got in. Shit, tmy mom's room is past my room at the end of the hallway. I'll wait at my door and when they get close, I'll hit them square in the head!/
The crushing of glass could be heard. Each crunch sounding louder and louder as the intruder approached Garet's room. Garet took deep breaths, trying to calm himself now so he wouldn't be heard. The crunching noise had stopped, with the only noise left is Garet's and the intruders breath.
As his hands began to tremble in fear, Garet held his breath and waited until the intruders breath was withing bat distance. The noise finally got to the door.
Garet swung open the door and screamed,
"GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE!"
Garet swung his bat at full force, determined to stop the intruder.
The intruder screamed,
"WAIT-"
The bat hit square in the intruders shoulder. The bat broke from the impact with pieces flying in every other direction. The intruder jolted in pain, and let out a terrified scream. The intruder's shoulder seemly had been dislocated as it's bend was unnatural.
"AAAHHHHHH!"
"I WON'T LET YOU HURT ME OR MY MOTHER!"
Garet through himself at the intruder, who was slumping on the wall, and both fell on the floor. Garet quickly put his hand around the intruder's neck and began to squeeze his neck.
Garet's mother ran out her room with a panicked expression. As she saw her son seemingly fighting an intruder, she screamed and said,
"I AM CALLING THE COPS, GET AWAY FROM MY SON!"
Garet squeezed hard as he heard his mother's voice. He was willing to do anything for her.
The intruder tried to remove Garet off of him. He tried rolling side to side, grab Garet's hair, clothe, anything his unharmed hand could reach. The intruder started smacking the floor as if you call the match. The intruder let out a whimpering cry,
"please stop... I am your friend."
Garet released some pressure from their neck but still had a solid hold on it.
"WHO ARE YOU THEN!"
"Ja...red..."
Garet looked surprised and let go of him. He got up and step away from Jared. Garet's mother had her phone in hand, already on the dial pad. Jared took a large gasp of air and took a few rapid breaths after. Garet looked at Jared on the floor and became angry again.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?! WHY WOULD YOU BREAK INTO MY HOUSE?!"
Jared slowly regained some sort of posture and held his dislocated shoulder; he began to speak.
"I had to make sure you were prepared for Goku's eventual arrival. I also came here to show the proper way to protect yourself against him. You already made a bad move by attacking me. If you would have attacked Goku, he would have killed you."
Jared looked at Garet as Garet face slowly became more inraged. Jared saw Garet as if a bomb had exploded inside Garet and had no other way out but through his mouth. Jared glanced at Garet's mother, frozen in place with a death stare directly at Jared.
"Really? REALLY?! IS THIS WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT? YOUR FUCKING IDIOTIC DELUSIONS OF A FUCKING ANIME CHARACTER WHERE YOU HEARD THAT IT IS A FUCKING HAUNTED SPRITI?! A STORY YOU GOT FROM A FUCKING INTERNET FORUM KNOWN FOR BEEN DOGSHIT?! GET THE FUCK OUT MY HOUSE!"
"I just wanted to help y-"
"OUT"
Jared looked at Garet's mother again. She stated,
"Get out of our house and never come near me or my son again. If you don't leave, I will call the police and I will tell your parents."
Jared slowly got up from the floor, struggling to get up with just on arm. He slowly then began to walk to the exit but quickly turned his head twards Garet.
"I sent you a video that will-"
"LEAVE"
"Ok."
Jared walked out the house and Garet's mother quickly locked the door. They put a dresser in front of the broken window as a temporary fix and decided to take a break before they decided on what to do next. They both went back to their rooms and went to sleep.
"Really? Dam, I didn't know he was like that."
"I am sorry that happened to you man. Hope you get that window fixed soon."
"Yeah, I am starting to wonder why we were even friends."
Garet seats at lunch with a couple of his friends.
"I know Jared was kind of quirky but this was not something I would suspect of him."
"Yeah, I tolerated him because he was sometimes fun to be around but he got pretty annoying fast. I am not knocking him down for what he likes or anything but he just takes things to far."
"You remember that time he showed that fucking video on Nazis? Shit was weird and he thought it was funny."
"He said the reason we didn't get it was because we don't like 'edgy humor'. I don't really think Nazi jokes are really humorous."
"I can tolerate it honestly."
"And that's why you say some of the racist shit sometimes."
"Hey, at least I know some people don't like my jokes."
"Bruh, you in the same boat as Jared, just slightly behind."
"Oh don't compare me to him. You know he does way more crazier shit then me."
"Watch out Kim, don't get too comfortable on that high horse of yours."
"Shut the fuck up."
The group got quite as they saw Jared walk pass them. Jared had his lunch in his hand and was seemingly looking for a place to seat. The group tried to not make eye contact with him but that didn't stop Jared from asking the group.
"Can I sit here with my buddies?"
"Uhmm, look Jared, I know you are our friend, in a sense, but I think you should look for another spot."
"Why can't I seat here? I see that there is some space on the table."
"Well, Garet told us what you did last night, and uhmm, I don't think we really like that."
"Oh, it's about that huh? I know Garet was going to tell you. I understand."
"Well, I guess we don't got to explain it to you then."
Jared looked down at his lunch as he started to walk away. But he then stopped and looked at Garet.
"Did you see the video?"
"Don't talk to me."
"Wow, ok. I told you why-"
"Leave."
"No! You always put me down, you never listen to me! You push me around and then pretend to be my friend. Why are you so manipulative?! Was this all fake?!"
Garet got up.
"I was your friend, at first, genuinely thought we could be good friends. Then I got to know you. Now, I am your friend because of pity. I pity you for your insufferable life. You parents, your social life, your behavior. I wanted to help you, but you took advantage and dragged everyone done to your level. We can be mean, judgemental and even uncaring, but you are not any better then us just because we do it. You do it to. Way more often in fact, and we tolerate it. This was long over due. Leave us alone."
Jared looked disgusted. He put down has lunch on the table and pointed to his chest.
"I have suffered my whole life, my parents don't like me, I am anti social, I am unhealthy and you think I am in the bad?! I act the way I do because I am suffering. You think I don't know that?! I want to be happy Garet. I thought you also wanted that too but now you tell me it was out of pity? Does everyone in my life hate me?"
"Jared, I sympathy with you. But having a bad life does not give you the right to be an asshole."
"You all think your better then me. Is that it?"
Jared slowly walked up to Garet.
"You want me to break your arm this time?"
Jared backed down. He grabbed his lunch and walked away.
Later on that day, Garet had gotten back home and had just finished grabbing some snacks out the fridge. He head to his room and locked his door. He was hoping on playing some games on his PC as his friend had invited him to livestream a game with him. As he logged into the computer, he noticed an email. An email sent by Jared.
"What's this?"
He noticed there was a video attached to the email and decided to open it. The subject of the email said For Safety's Sake. The video itself said DBZ Episode 666.mp4.
"Please let this be a joke."
He opened the video.
The video started with the original Dragon Ball Z intro with Cha-La Head-Cha-La playing as usual. The only unusual part was only Goku was the only one to show up in the intro, with all segments involving other characters just being still frames of Goku looking at the screen.
"Is this supposed to be scary?"
The episode then properly started at the end of the song, with having the scene show Vegeta and Goku posing for their fight that happened in the Buu Saga. There was then a close up shot of Vegeta powering up with energy as if the fight had just began but Goku did not do the same. Goku in fact had a smile in his face and had poorly drawn red and black eyes. Vegeta looked at with confusion as he said "What's wrong Kakrot?"
Goku suddenly powered up to Super Saiyan 3 and teleported behind Vegeta. The screen cuts to black and you hear what is presumed to be Vegeta. After the scream stops, the screen cuts to a image of Goku holding Vegeta's decapitated head. Poorly drawn blood was dripping out of Vegetated head and his eyes were bloodshot.
"Aaaaaa, Vegeta's Dead!" Garet was not taken this seriously.